Reminiscences Of A Long Life - John Logan Campbell

Most will know of Cornwall Park and will have heard of Sir John Logan Campbell who donated the park to Auckland in 1901, but few will know of his extraordinarily adventurous life and wonderfully gifted style of writing. This book brings for the first time to the reader a complete account of his life in his own words. The text has been introduced and annotated by the acknowledged Campbell expert, Professor Russell Stone, now Professor Emeritus in History at the University of Auckland. Ensuring readability and accuracy, he was worked with previously published material as well as from many of Campbell's handwritten manuscripts that are now in poor condition.

From Campbell's birth in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1817 as a grandson of a baronet to graduation as a surgeon in Edinburgh to a pioneering lifestyle in New Zealand and emergence as a feted hero for every Auckland citizen, this gifted man has left a record unparalleled in any colonial settlement in New Zealand. His writings demonstrate his humanity, his adventurous spirit and his commercial abilities in adveristy and good fortune. He always wrote with wit, grace and erudition but in a lively and most readable style.

Over 300 paintings, engravings and photographs including rare works from the Cornwall Park Trust, Auckland Museum, Auckland Libraries and the Auckland Art Gallery. They follow Campbell's whole life from his childhood in Scotland, travel to Australia and New Zealand, his numerous trips to Europe and his final return to Auckland. This is a remarkable and entertaining record of a remarkable life.